By Monmon
Disclaimers: Read Chapter 1.
Sendoh woke up suddenly when something heavy jumped upon his chest. He felt something very warm and wet on his face. His eyes popped open in surprise and stared dumbly at a grinning fox with emerald green eyes on top of him. Morning sunshine was streaming in from the window by the bed and it bathed the whole room in light.
"I guess he likes you."
Sendoh turned his head and watched Rukawa step into the room with a tray. On the tray, there was a bowl of soup and a large piece of bread. Upon seeing Rukawa, the fox bounded off of Sendoh and ran up to the fox-eyed youth. Rukawa set down the tray on the table and motioned Sendoh to eat. Sendoh dipped the bread into the soup and watched Rukawa as he munched on the bread. Rukawa bent down and rubbed the fox affectionately on the head as the fox licked his hand. Rukawa's expression, however, showed no emotion whatsoever.
"So does the fox have a name?"
"Kit. Sendoh Akira."
Sendoh was surprised that Rukawa ha given his name to the fox. He quickly got over his surprise and concluded that Rukawa was not your normal everyday healer. He continued to finish up his breakfast.
"So Rukawa, is there a village nearby?" Sendoh asked with a smile.
"Short walk west."
"Don't you ever say more than just a few words?"
"…"
"Guess not." 'Oh well.' "By the way, what day is today?"
Rukawa considered this question for a minute and then replied, "Twenty-fourth day of spring."
Sendoh quickly calculated the amount of days had passed by since the battle at Sawakita's encampment and was extremely surprised to discover that it was only three days ago. 'Impossible! I know Sawakita hit me with a poisoned dart and I'm sure that he would have slit my throat if he thought that the poison would not take my life. So why am I still alive and awake in only three days after the battle?' He eyed Rukawa warily who was now feeding Kit a piece of dried meat. 'Who exactly is this man and what does he want from me?' He turned this question around in his mind and decided that he could think about it later when his head started to pound. His expression must have showed his pain because Rukawa suddenly got up, took the almost empty bowl from his hands and gently pushed him back on the bed.
"Where does it hurt?"
Sendoh was surprised to hear concern in the other man's voice. He looked up at the fox-eyed man's face. Rukawa's expression was bland and impassive. 'Was I just hearing things or what?' Sendoh wondered to himself. He must have been silent for quite a while because Rukawa decided that a full physical checkup was in order.
Rukawa glared blackly at his patient when the man started to protest that he was all right. Sendoh must have caught his glare because he immediately stopped fidgeting. It was a good thing that the man succumbed to his ministrations because Rukawa had very little patience for uncooperative patients. He had no compunctions about forcing his patients to do things that he thought was necessary to ensure their health. This included shoving medicine down a patient's throat or even knocking out the patient so the patient would stop squirming. He proceeded to check the man's vital signs. 'Hmm… temperature is normal. Pulse is also normal. Breathing is also normal. There was no head injury or uneven pupils when I found him, so a concussion is out of the question. Perhaps he is just plain tired.' Finally satisfied with his assessment, he got up and pulled some blankets over the man. He then pulled a curtain over the window, plunging the room into a semidarkness. "Rest." He told the man over his shoulder as he walked out of the room with the bowl on the tray. Kit looked back and forth between him and Sendoh and then decided to stay with Sendoh.
Rukawa shrugged indifferently at the fox's decision as he walked out of the room and then thought with a slight smirk, 'Kit must be as curious about this guy as I am.' He frowned. 'Sendoh doesn't trust me. I wonder why. I didn't do anything offensive towards him and he's only been awake for two days.' He thought back to the moment when he felt Sendoh's distrust. 'Hmm… he was asking me a question. Now what was it? He asked me for today's date! So that's what it was. He's wondering how he is awake in only three days after he was poisoned. He must think that I had the antidote on hand. That makes me very suspicious.' He thought ruefully to himself.
A possible solution suddenly hit him. 'I could show him the poisoned dart and explain a bit about the poison. If I show him that I'm willing to assist him in any way, maybe he'll trust me.' He started at his own thoughts, almost dropping the tray in his hands. He had never cared a whit before what people thought of him, especially if they trust him or not, but now he was willing to practically do anything to get this man who was recovering in his home to trust him. 'What is it about this man that made this change in me so necessary? I know that he's important and my instincts are never wrong about these things.' Rukawa set the tray down on a table and rubbed his temples lightly throwing his current thoughts temporarily aside. His muscles felt tense and his head hurt. He decided that a visit to the hot springs was exactly what he needed. He left the cottage with some spare clothes knowing that Kit would find him if anything wrong happened.
Sendoh stared up at the ceiling confusedly. The concern he felt from Rukawa was real. He was sure of it. He wanted to trust this man but his mind and practicality would not let him until he was absolutely sure. As his thoughts whirled around in his head, his head started to pound again. 'Maybe I should do what the healer prescribed and get some sleep after all.' He thought ruefully to himself. With that, he closed his eyes and let himself drift off into a dreamless state.
Sendoh woke up to the sensation of someone shaking him. His muscles tensed and his eyes snapped open. Rukawa's face loomed over him and he finally remembered where he was. He relaxed his muscles but his eyes watched the fox-eyed healer warily.
"I thought you might be hungry."
The healer held out a large bowl of chicken stew towards him. Sendoh sat up slowly in bed and took the bowl. He peered out the window and saw that it was already night. 'How long have I been asleep? I didn't realize that I was so tired.'
"You slept for about eight hours."
The cold and impassive voice cut through his musings. He looked up startled that the other man read his mind and he slowly began to eat. Rukawa sat down on a chair by the bed and then pulled something out of the folds of his robes.
"I believe this is yours."
The fox-eyed man held out a cloth with a dart nestled in the middle. His eyes widened in surprise and interest as he stared at the dart. He recognized it as one of the darts that Sawakita had secretly commissioned from the kingdom's blacksmiths. He accidentally happened to find out about it when he went to the blacksmiths and asked them to fix a little nick in his sword. A man who went by the pseudonym ES commissioned those darts and it wasn't too hard to figure out who ES was. Luckily he figured it out before those same darts were used in the attempt to assassinate the king and the prince.
"That's the dart that poisoned me."
The kitsune-eyed man nodded affirmatively.
"I thought you might be interested to learn what poisoned you." Rukawa looked at him expectantly with clear deep blue eyes.
Curiosity taking over, Sendoh nodded cautiously. He reached for the dart in the other man's hands. He was surprised when the other man pulled it just out of his reach. "I didn't sterilize it."
Rukawa moved the dart within his reach once again.
Sendoh reached for the dart again and this time, Rukawa didn't pull the dart away. He carefully took the dart and the cloth from the other man and scrutinized the poisoned tip, mindful not to touch the poisoned edge.
"The poison is from Aiwa. It's rare."
Sendoh studied Rukawa with hard eyes. Clear, vibrant, deep blue eyes stared back at him as if daring him to look away. A thought suddenly hit him, 'Maybe he knows that I don't trust him. Was I that transparent?' He glanced at the dart and then looked back at the healer. 'Might as well be blunt about it.' "Why are you telling me this?"
"I want you to trust me."
'Oh well. So much for keeping my suspicions to myself.' "Why should I trust you?" He demanded, looking at the kitsune-eyed healer carefully.
The other man shrugged his shoulders and then replied impassively, "You would be dead if I wished it."
'Good point. Sawakita would not let the chance to kill me just slip away. He just hates me too much to do that.' He understood how much the ex-baron hated him and his present alive state would most assuredly make Sawakita angry. 'So maybe this man isn't part of Sawakita's group. But how did he heal me so quickly? Wait a minute. Could it be that he has the same power as Master Healer Ayako-san?'
He remembered the time when one of the lieutenants under his command came back extremely cut up from a scouting mission. Luckily Ayako-san was there. The lieutenant was bleeding profusely in many places and he had a big gash on his head that would not clot. Ayako-san placed her hand on his head and closed her eyes. At the time, Sendoh wanted to rage at her and make her do something other than just sit there. But something stopped him. He saw a pink aura around her and it surrounded the lieutenant's head. The gash closed in on itself and the new skin formed where the cut was. It was as if there was never a wound there. It was the first time that he had ever seen the power that only master healers possess. It was this power that differentiated them from regular healers and it fascinated him. But power always comes with a price. After Ayako-san finished healing the man, she fell out of her chair to the ground unconscious. The paleness of her face appalled him and he immediately ordered that a room and bed to be made for her. Much to his relief, she recovered the next day.
'Maybe Rukawa has the same power. But a master healer at his age?' He thought dubiously to himself. He almost laughed out loud at his own thoughts. 'Well who had ever heard of a general at my age?' Many pompous nobles at court often scoffed at his status thinking that he was only given the position only because he was a distant cousin of Prince Miyagi, not because of his skills. He eventually proved them all wrong with his military prowess and the loyalty that he inspired in his troops. 'And now I'm doing the same thing to Rukawa.' He mentally smacked himself in the head.
Finally noticing that Rukawa was waiting for him to say something, he gave the other man a big grin and solemnly said with a straight face, "I'll trust you if you give me another bowl of this delicious stew." He held the bowl out to Rukawa with puppy dog eyes.
He watched gleefully as Rukawa's eyes widened in shock and his jaw drop open in surprise. 'So adorable!' He thought delightedly to himself. He mentally smacked himself in the head again. 'Akira, what the HELL are you thinking of?'
Rukawa quickly recovered from his surprise, snapped his mouth shut and nodded slightly. He glared at him and grabbed the empty bowl from Sendoh's fingers and walked quickly out of the room.
Sendoh amusedly watched the fox-eyed healer stalk out of the room with an unconscious grace and bowl clutched in his hands. There was no denying the fact that the other man was beautiful. The man had white creamy skin and piercing blue eyes with long black lashes that any girl would kill to have. 'I would definitely jump all over Rukawa if he was a girl. Too bad he's a guy.' He thought somewhat regrettably to himself.
Rukawa quickly returned with another bowl of stew but this time he did not sit down to talk. The healer just glared at him and stalked out of the room again. Sendoh grinned again in spite of the disappointment he felt when Rukawa did not deign to stay and talk some more. 'Rukawa looks so cute when he is angry!' He thought cheerfully to himself. He could tell he was going to have fun spending time with the fox-eyed man. He finished up his second bowl of stew and then lied back down on the bed. The heat of the stew spread through his entire body and the warmth was making him drowsy. He yawned languidly and snuggled deeper in the blankets. He quickly fell asleep again.